


New Day Rising

by Huntress79



Category: White Collar
Genre: Episode: s01e01 Pilot, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-18 23:37:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5947552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/pseuds/Huntress79
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even the (allegedly) best con man in the world needs some time to adjust to new living quarters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Day Rising

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Round 2 of runthecon and the prompt “Sunrise” by guineamania. Set in the pilot episode (consider it a deleted scene). Unbetaed, so if you spot any typos or errors, please let me know. Also fills the "Sunrise/Sunset" square on my Gen Prompt Bingo Card for Round 9.

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Despite the fact that his mind was racing a mile a minute ever since he stepped over the threshold downstairs, entering the beautiful mansion on Riverside Drive for the very first time, Neal fell asleep.

When he awoke the next morning, it took him a minute or two to get his bearings. There were definitely way too many things different around him, or at least to everything he was used to for the last four years.

At first, the fact alone that he had slept a good night’s sleep, undisturbed (which was a stark contrast to the uncounted nights in prison, where the constant stream of background noises caused him to keep his sleep light, just in case) had his mind puzzled for some time, before he realized that he was, somehow, a free man, if one was to equal “freedom” with breathing fresh air and sleeping in a real bed.

Speaking of the bed: Try as he might, Neal couldn’t remember a single time he had slept in such a wonderful bed. Sure, back in his heyday as a con man he frequented the best and most luxurious places in the world, but nothing could hold a candle to the softness of the bed he was lying in right now. On top of that, the scents of the fabric softener and the wooden frame of the bed mingled around him and caused him to feel kind of at home; if he was honest, for the first time in a very long time.

“Rise and shine, Neal!”

Before his prison stint, Neal was never one to be ashamed of his physique; quite the contrary, on more than one occasion (usually during a con), he loved to feel the glances of both women and men on him, on one hand envying him for and on the other hand wishing they could touch his chiseled, Greek-god-like features with their own hands.

But now, having someone getting a (good) look at his half-clad body made Neal a bit self-conscious. Sure, he still was the same good-looking man with the great physique, but prison made him aware that “pretty boys” like him, as one of the other inmates had labeled it, didn’t stand in chance against the big players. They either played along, taking whatever the others wanted from them in stride, or bit the dust (more or less in a literal way). Neal somehow stayed unharmed, mostly because he got one of the warden (and his wife) on his side with his silver tongue.

It didn’t matter that the person in question was “just” his new landlady, June Ellington. Scrambling around on the bed, tangling himself up in the cover in the process, Neal finally found the t-shirt he had put on in the evening, but somehow had discarded during the night.

“You don’t have to hurry to cover yourself up, Neal.”

June’s voice was light and with just the right amount of humor lacing it. And yet, it made Neal feel like a child, somehow.

“Come, join me on the terrace for breakfast, will you?”

She made a gesture with her free hand (the other one was holding Bugsy) towards the glass doors, and only then Neal noticed that New York was bathed in the first golden rays of a glorious sunshine.

Grabbing his “new” morning gown, he first went over to the bathroom, taking care of some urgent business. Before he left the room again, Neal chanced a look at the mirror, then down his left leg to his latest “jewelry”.

“You better don’t mess this up, Caffrey, if you ever want to see her again,” Neal said to the man in the mirror, before heading out to the terrace and starting not only into a new day, but also a new life.

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The End

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End file.
